JetBlue fined $2 million by DOT for flight delays and unrealistic scheduling
NEW YORK (PIX11) — The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Friday that JetBlue must pay $2 million to compensate travelers for chronically delayed flights.
JetBlue is the first airline ever to be fined by the DOT for flight delays and unrealistic scheduling practices.
The DOT says JetBlue’s delayed flights and practices harmed passengers and fair competition across the airline industry.
“A ‘chronically delayed flight’ means any domestic flight operated at least 10 times a month and arrives more than 30 minutes late (including canceled flights) more than 50 percent of the time during that month,” read court documents.
Between June 2022 and November 2023, a DOT investigation found that JetBlue operated four chronically delayed flights at least 145 times, each delayed for five consecutive months. Despite a DOT warning, the airline continued delays on routes from JFK to Raleigh-Durham, as well as from Fort Lauderdale and Orlando to JFK and between Fort Lauderdale and Windsor Locks, Connecticut.
“Illegal chronic flight delays make flying unreliable for travelers. Today's action puts the airline industry on notice that we expect their flight schedules to reflect reality,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “The department will enforce the law against airlines with chronic delays or unrealistic scheduling practices to protect healthy competition and ensure passengers are treated fairly.”
Following Friday’s ruling, the New York City-based airline will pay a $2 million penalty and stop operating its unreliable flight.
One-half of the penalty will be paid directly to the U.S. Treasury. The remaining half will compensate JetBlue passengers harmed by chronically delayed flights covered by the DOT’s order or any future flight cancellations or delays within the following calendar year.
Future compensation must be valued at a minimum of $75 for each harmed passenger.
We appreciate how important it is to our customers to arrive to their destinations on-time and work very hard to operate our flights as scheduled. Over the past two years, JetBlue has invested tens of millions of dollars to reduce flight delays, particularly related to ongoing air traffic control (ATC) challenges in our largest markets in the Northeast and Florida. Through these efforts, we have seen significant operational improvements in 2024 including better on-time performance during this year’s peak summer travel season.
While we’ve reached a settlement to resolve this matter regarding four flights in 2022 and 2023, we believe accountability for reliable air travel equally lies with the U.S. government, which operates our nation’s air traffic control system. The U.S. should have the safest, most efficient, and advanced air traffic control system in the world, and we urge the incoming administration to prioritize modernizing outdated ATC technology and addressing chronic air traffic controller staffing shortages to reduce ATC delays that affect millions of air travelers each year.
A spokesperson for JetBlue said in a statment to PIX11 News
For more information on the DOT’s ruling, click here.